


Itsy Bitsy Spider

by RainbowArches



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick has always loved spiders and Natasha has always been scared of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Itsy Bitsy Spider

One of Nick’s earliest memories was of trying to protect a spider on the playground from the children stampeding carelessly about. He’d never be able to tell you what he liked about spiders. He didn’t really know anything about them. He just liked them. He was mesmerised by them, spinning their webs, creepy little legs dancing about. He felt protective of them. He felt protective of anything that could be easily stepped on. So he picked the little spider up and carried it to the fence that surrounded the school yard. Kids weren’t allowed out that far unless they were playing soccer, but Nick was small and was sure nobody would notice. He crouched and let the spider crawl from his hand and into the grass.

A bigger boy appeared next to him.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the boy said, in that snooty bossy tone Nick had come to associate with older kids. “You’ll get in trouble. I’ll tell.”

“I was helping the spider,” Nick said, all too aware of how squeaky and lispy he sounded to the gruff kid towering over him.

Nick sat back so that the boy could see the spider skittering through the grass, proof of his purpose for being out of bounds.

The boy squinted critically at it. Then, with a smirk, he stomped on it.

“Hey!” Nick yelled.

“What? It’s just a dumb bug.”

Nick reached back one tiny hand to hit him. The boy ran away, laughing. Nick just sat there and cried. The teacher had to come and collect him at the end of recess. He got in trouble for wandering and being uncooperative, no matter what Nick said about the spider and the mean older boy.

Years later he would feel embarrassed about how emotional he got over the whole thing, but he would always fondly and gratefully remember his grandmother’s reaction, or her lack of one, after she’d been told. Nick didn’t remember exactly what she’d done- sighed tiredly, or grunted an acknowledgement. He remembered her looking at the teacher with careful neutrality. Then she scooped up his hand and walked him home like any other day. They didn’t talk about it.

That weekend she made Nick a small collection of spiders out of leftover bits of yarn, a long piece of string attached to each of them so that he could drag them around the house, bounce them up his grandmother’s leg while she sang Itsy Bitsy Spider, and hang them from his windowsill. His grandfather would blow on them, making them swing and tangle around each other.

Nick’s grandparents mistook Nick’s intelligence for maturity and enrolled him in school early. The other kids didn’t like him much and the teacher didn’t know how to handle him. He was shy and quiet most of the time but would throw tantrums when goaded. He would hyper-focus on certain things and simply not bother with others. He’d bring bugs into the classroom and distract the other kids with them without even realising. He’d fall asleep in the middle of class. Half way through the year his grandparents pulled him out, deciding he wasn’t as ready as they thought.

As Nick got older he got better at making friends. Then he got better at making allies. He learned to focus and divide his attention. He joined the war and got comfortable with a gun. He joined SHIELD and got comfortable with the game. He put up a front and compartmentalized and kept his cards close to his chest. He once found a mole in Shield. He took a broken bottle to Nick’s eye and Nick shot him in the head. That night a spider bit him on the thumb and he got an infection. He scooped it up with a sheet of paper and plastic cup and put it on the windowsill outside before calling the nurse.

 

Natasha dug her nails into her knees as she curled in tighter. She pressed her lips together, holding her breath in, trying desperately to suppress every reaction to the spider dangling in front of her, making its way to her toes, while her mark tried to find her.

“ _Where are you, little spider?_ ” he called, his voice bouncing off the walls. “ _Come out, come out, wherever you are._ ”

He started whistling Itsy Bits Spider in slow sinister notes. Natasha didn’t look, but she imagined him stalking down the hall like a hunter, gun at the ready, that ugly grin on his face.

He made it passed her hiding spot before the spider could touch down. She eased herself out of the duct, keeping her eyes on the thread, carefully avoiding it. Slowly, silently, she let her breath out, calming herself. Then she took out her knife set off down the hall.

 

Natasha’s fear of spiders crept up on her rather suddenly. She’d been in the Red Room for a few months. She'd barely said a word her entire time there. They didn't mind. They preferred the girls to be quiet more often than not. One night she’d been dreaming about ballerinas, eight of them lined up in a row, performing as one. Their eyes were tiny and blank. Their spindly arms and legs curved and pointed and danced. As they danced, a thread appeared on each of their heads, attaching them to the ceiling. Then they began to move around each other, creating a web. Natasha woke up. Something was tickling the hand that was cuffed to the bed frame. It made its way down her arm, across her shoulders, and onto her pillow. When Natasha remembered this later she thought the spider had probably not been that big, but at the time it looked enormous. She screamed. She woke the whole building. Later she would remember her punishment in foggy flashes, like scenes of a nightmare she’d had as a child. She was still scared of spiders, but she was a lot quieter about it. She was quieter about a lot of things.

 

There was a spider sitting in the corner of the interrogation cell. It hadn’t moved in the thirty minutes she’d been sitting there, hadn’t even twitched when Fury swept into the room.

“You’ve probably figured this out by now but for the record, if I didn’t want you here alive you wouldn’t be.”

Natasha blinked and jerked her gaze away from the spider. She was angry with herself for getting distracted.

Fury’s eye turned to the spot she’d been staring at. He looked back at her.

“What’s the matter? Don’t like spiders?” He said it like it was a joke. _Ha! The_ Black Widow _doesn’t like spiders. Riiight._

After the interrogation or interview or whatever Fury wanted to call it, he went and scooped up the spider before escorting Natasha out.

She stared at his hands warily. “What are you going to do with it?”

“I’m going to put it outside. There’s nothing for it to eat in here and Hill hates cobwebs.”

 

Natasha cemented herself as an ally- or at least a valuable asset- to Fury if not necessarily all of SHIELD a lot quicker than she thought she would. She wasn't stupid so she was never punished. She rarely made mistakes but when she did the goal was to fix them, not punish her for them. And she learned that she didn't need to worry because Clint was stupid all the time and he was reprimanded but he didn't have nightmares about it. She learned to lighten up.

Cooper and Lila were screaming. It’s okay, Natasha reminded herself. They’re outside, playing. Clint and Laura don’t mind the screaming. They even played with the kids sometimes and added to the noise.

She went to the kitchen to get some water and keep an eye on everyone through the window. She froze. A spider was crawling down the window.

“What’s the matter? Said Nick as he appeared behind her. “Don’t like spiders?” He said it like he was confused or sad. _Why don’t you like spiders? What’s wrong with them?_

Natasha shook her head.

“How come?”

“I don’t like how they dangle over you and crawl all over you. They’re creepy.”

“They’re trying to avoid getting stepped on. They won’t hurt you.” He reached out and picked it up.

Natasha stepped back.

“Some of them will hurt you.”

“Not this one.”

He opened his hand so that Natasha could see it twitch curiously. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried not to shudder, but she didn’t feel the urge to jump away.

“See? Harmless.”

“I’m still not going to touch it.”

Nick laughed. “Fine, I won’t make you. Get the door for me.”

The kids came bounding up to the porch to see what Nick was holding.

“Found you a new pet,” he said, showing them the spider.

“Ew!” But they were grinning and reached out to touch it.

“Careful,” Nick warned. “Gently.”

He set it down on the porch and let the kids play with it. Natasha watched, feeling an odd mix of amusement and horror. The kids were getting way too excited over a common household spider and were probably confusing the poor thing, but they weren’t teasing it and they weren’t running away from it. They were playing with it.

Natasha and Nick sat in the lawn chairs and watched.

“So is this a crippling, paralysing fear or do they just creep you out?” Nick asked.

“I think I’ll be fine.”


End file.
